100 Greatest Phillies: 90 – Kent Tekulve

For four years, the bespectacled Tekulve dazzled hitters with his submarine swagger. Durable as heck, Tekulve came to the Phils in a trade for Al Holland in 1985, and quickly established himself as the bullpen horse. He threw 110 innings for the Phils in 1986, recording a 11-5 mark with a fine 2.54 ERA. His ERA grew in his next two seasons, but remained below 4.00 while still throwing 80 or more innings. In 1987 he threw in an MLB-best 90 games. At age 40. After retiring, he joined the Phils as a commentator. Remember that?

Comment: What a cool pitcher. A throwback. Those awesome glasses. That cool sub style. A great pitcher for his entire career — easily one of the game’s greatest relievers. I’ll always see him in a black Pirates jersey, wearing that crude square yellow cap with the black lines, but for a while, he was a great Phillie.

Does he belong higher on the list than our all-time saves leader or the guy who took us to the ’93 series? I’m not sold on his position. By the way…why all the relief pitchers? Based on my list you’re going to have at least 6-7more relievers on the list by the time you’re done. That means over 10% of our top 100 players of all-time will be relief pitchers. And…are you including managers?

I’ll give Tim credit becase the list is keeping me interested. I really don’t remember Teke – I wasn’t even born until 86 – so it’s interesting to see this list of players, many of whom I do not remember. Rob, some of the best Phillies have been relievers. Let’s wait and see how the list shakes out before we condemn the list. Tim, I respect your overall body of work. Thanks for writing about these players and giving me a better insight into Phillies history

I like the list but i feel the guys that took us to some of the more pivotal moments in Phillies history deserve to be higher on the list, where would the 93 team be without Mitchie Poo, where would the Phillies rotation be this season without the superb pitching of Jamie Moyer, who basically led by example and took Cole Hamels under his wing since he’s been here. Yea Mesa belongs at the bottom of the list because he was part of some mediocre teams nothing great. Just my opinion, not knocking the list.

Kent Teculve was old school! I remember watching him in my younger years! Agree with Justin Though. Moyer and Mitch should be higher on the list. Much higher than Mesa and Hollins. Still it’s a great conversation piece!

Yessssssss! He made it! I always liked him in my baseball cards at the game that my Dad gave me to know who was up. And for awhile there he was the only celeb I knew that had my bday! Long live the glasses!

I’ve seen the 1976 Phillies bullpen listed as one of the best ever with Garber, Reed, McGraw, Twitchell, and Schueler. All but Schueler belong on the top 100 Phillies before guys like Tekulve and some of the others you picked.